Recent years have seen an increased interest in field emitter displays. This is attributable to the fact that such displays can fulfill the goal of being consumer-affordable hang-on-the-wall flat panel television displays with diagonals in the range of 20 to 60 inches. Certain field emitter displays operate on the same physical principles as cathode ray tube (CRT) based displays. Excited electrons are guided to a phosphor target to create a display. The phosphor then emits photons in the visible spectrum. This method of operation for field emitter displays relies on an array of field emitter tips.
Although field emitter displays promise to provide better color and image resolution, one of their problems is that it is difficult to get the field emitter to emit electrons so as to strike the phosphor target to generate the display. Another problem is that video images on these displays tend to take on undesired viewing characteristics over a relative short period of time. These undesired characteristics might be caused by degradation of the field emitter display due to certain conditions near the vicinity of the field emitter displays. These issues raise questions about the commercial success of the displays in the marketplace.
Thus, what is needed are structures and methods to enhance the emission of electrons in field emitter displays while dealing with the degradation of the field emitter over time.